Red Bull Racing In Own Zip Code
Toto Wolff joked that Max Verstappen made the rest of the field look like F2 drivers, I think now we can make a case that Red Bull Racing is honestly in a race of their own. Last week, Max Verstappen topped Lando Norris by 33.731-seconds. This week, Verstappen cleared second place by 22.305-seconds. However, that was his teammate in Sergio Perez.
The next best was Charles Leclerc who finished 32.259-seconds behind Verstappen.
That’s two straight races prior to summer break to where Red Bull was over a half-a-minute ahead of the competition.
This win now makes them 12-for-12 in 2023 breaking a record for most wins now to start a season. McLaren won the first 11 races in 1988. It was also their 5th 1-2 effort this year on a track that they also went 1-2 at a year ago.
They’ve won 22 of the last 23 races in general and 28 of the last 31 overall.
For Verstappen, this is clearly his title. This was his 8th win in-a-row and even if you count the sprint races, he’s not left a track without a win since April 30 in Baku.
He’s finished either 1st or 2nd in every race run this year and holds a commanding 125-point lead over Perez in points. His 314 points accumulated already is more than Sebastian Vettel had in 2010 and 2012 for the entire season.
This was also the first time that he’s won from sixth meaning that he’s tied Fernando Alonso for a record of winning a race from nine different starting spots.
For Perez, this runner-up fully gets his momentum back. He qualified on the front row and while Verstappen finished well ahead, being P2 by 11 seconds over the next best has him with confidence again.
Over these last three races too, he too has opened up his lead over the field. At one point, it was looking like he may lose out on being P2 in the drivers standings.
However, he’s finished 3rd, 6th, 3rd, 2nd in the last four grand prix’ compared to Fernando Alonso being 5th, 7th, 9th, 5th. Lewis Hamilton was 8th, 3rd, 4th, 4th in the same four races to allow Perez to stay well ahead of them in leading Alonso by 40 points for second and Hamilton by 41.
The best battle in F1 though is for supremacy behind them.
Last week in Budapest was the first time in months that the same driver finished runner-up in two straight races. Previously, we witnessed 6 straight races with a new driver finishing 2nd.
Now, it’s back again.
In Miami, it was Red Bull going 1-2 with Verstappen-Perez. For Monaco it was Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso. Spain was Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton’s turn. Canada was back to Aston Martin and Alonso. Austria was Ferrari and Charles LeClerc. England was Lando Norris and McLaren. Norris was back there last week in Budapest. Now, it was Perez again but this time with Leclerc behind them in third.
It’s making it a wild battle for who’s the second-best team in F1.
It started off as Aston Martin. Then Mercedes took over. McLaren then looked like it would be them and after a solid weekend out of Ferrari, it looks like they may very well put up a fight again too.
Red Bull may have went 1-2, but behind them was Ferrari-Mercedes-Aston Martin-Mercedes-McLaren.
Bigger picture is Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari have won 190 of the last 194 (97.9%) of the races. That’s all in the hybrid era.
However, Ferrari has 4 wins in the last 101. Mercedes had 111 wins in 160 tries (69%) between 2014 and 2021. Over the last 33, they’re just 1-for-34.
McLaren seems to have found the pace to get among them to break up the “Big 3” party. Aston Martin is still there too.
Leclerc Has Nothing For Red Bull’s But Gets Season Back On Track
Charles Leclerc was nearly a second back of Verstappen for the pole on Friday but due to Verstappen’s six spot grid penalty for a gearbox change, he was promoted to the pole. While no one expected him to stay in the top spot for long, the question was if he could stay on the podium.
He did just that.
Perez got by early then later Verstappen, but Leclerc wouldn’t lose another spot enjoying his third podium finish of the season. He had 1 podium finish in the opening 8 races but 2 now in the last 4.
McLaren Struggles With Downforce Levels
The McLaren duo elected to go with more downforce this weekend in anticipation of wet weather. It paid off in Saturday’s sprint race with Oscar Piastri finishing runner-up. Unfortunately, it was a parachute down the straights which didn’t allow for much of a fighting chance in Sunday’s race.
Piastri’s day was short lived with a first lap crash with Carlos Sainz Jr. Norris had some damage too but finished 7th for his fourth straight top seven finish heading to the summer break.
Straight Forward Race
The top two in points finished 1-2. They did so last year as well. Fernando Alonso finished 5th the last 2 years too. Not only that, most of the cars in points finished near where they are in the standings in Sunday’s race.
The entire top 6 in points finished in the top 6 on Sunday going: 1-2-5-4-3-6. Then, 8-9-10 in points finished 7-9-8.
Aston Martin/Alpine
Some are wondering where both teams have went. Aston Martin kind of expected this. Alpine…not so much.
For Alpine, they’ve made massive front office moves over the last month which includes a new team principal. You can tell nothing is aligning with the future and they’re frustrated.
They had a double DNF last week and slipped further back. After being P4 in the constructors a year ago, they’re down to 6th and sliding further way from a top five finish.
They’ve had 3 retirements in the last 2 races entering. That’s why Pierre Gasly being on the podium in the spring race and being 8th on Sunday could be a momentum changer for them.
For Aston Martin, they were down last year, rose early but tapered off. That’s not shocking to them in a way though.
Fernando Alonso started the season off strong with results of 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 2nd. He’s had 1 top 4 finish in the last 5 entering.
Why?
It was partially because teams have brought better upgrades. McLaren has gotten WAY faster. Mercedes has also improved their pace too. That’s 4 cars, plus 2 at Red Bull and 2 more in Ferrari makes a much more crowded field in the top 8 spots.
The main reason too is how the schedule laid out. Aston Martin struggles for pace on natural road courses like this one ahead. On street circuits though, Alonso was 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 2nd. That made up 5 of the 1st 6 races.
The last six races, there’s been just one race that ran like a street race (Montreal) for which Alonso was P2. On more natural free flowing tracks, he’s finished 6th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 5th. Lance Stroll was 7th, 9th, 9th, 14th 10th and 9th in the same races.
They need to find speed on these tracks over the break.
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